Transporting coal from mines in Witbank to the Matla Power Station in Mpumalanga is now the responsibility of Crossroads following the signing of a three year contract with Namane Resources.

The three-year contract involves loading, transporting and tipping 300 000 t of coal a year and was awarded to Crossroads because of its proven Dedicated Contract Carriage (DCC) capability.

The company has employed three new side tippers to handle the contract. Scheduling has been optimised to meet the specified requirements of the job, which involves 15 hours’ loading a day in two shifts and round trips of 88 km.

The DCC solution, which Crossroads offers in this instance, is part of a trend towards customised, outsourced transportation, giving clients with stable demand patterns the benefit of high vehicle utilisation.

Financing, maintaining, insuring and managing a fleet, ensuring that every vehicle is compliant with environmental and safety regulations and continually training drivers are increasingly complex tasks and strong arguments for outsourcing this specialised service.

As a specialised logistics and supply chain services provider, Crossroads offers the mining industry a variety of short haul and long haul logistical solutions that can be configured to suit specific requirements. The company has extensive cross border experience and operates throughout Southern Africa.